Donut Hole Karma

I try to stick to a weekly budget and this morning I found myself with a whopping $2.90 in my pocket. So the plan was to get a $1.60 coffee at Zocalo (the fabulous West Philly restaurant now has a coffee shop, serving La Colombe, yum!) and go nuts with the rest of my fortune on a stale $.90 granola bar from the vending machine.

When I left Zocalo, a home-challenged gent hit me up for some change. Without thinking, I gave him everything I had left in my pocket including some lint and some dog-hair-covered cheerios. This guy hits me up quite often, he’s very nice. I bought him a hot dog two weeks ago and he wanted his can of Pepsi upgraded to a bottle. I did not argue, anything to get his giant hand off my shoulder.  (FYI, when you’re a vegetarian, ordering a hot dog makes you feel like Benedict Arnold or Joe Lieberman… either way, icky).

So, with no coin left to fill my empty belly and no oatmeal packets left in my office,  I will just have to fight the urge to devour the lunch I packed until at least 11:45am. This was going to be hard, it’s a battle I usually lose and I end up with a full meal inside of me by 10:15 am and painful hunger pains attacking by 2:00 pm.

I was contemplating my sad plan and finishing my delicious cup of coffee when I received an email. A morning-brightening email of the highest degree: “Munchkins in The Kitchen!” Proper! Next to “We have no changes, you’re design is perfect,” it’s my most favorite subject line.

So I sped to the kitchen with the quickness and made fast friends with a lovely bunch of sugar-covered dough globs… mmmmm… good morning, gut!

Lesson learned: Help a brother out and your stupid healthy granola bar will magically turn into sweet reward. Give a little, get fatter.

Help The Homeless: From my friend Mark:

Anne, who is only 27, was named a CNN Hero last month for her work with BOMF (Back On My Feet), which gives people experiencing homelessness in Philadelphia a sense of community and accomplishment through running.  CNN has selected only 10 individuals across the United States and Anne is one of them so please vote for her if you get a moment (the winner receives $100k).

Vote: http://heroes.cnn.com/default.asp

Tags: Anne Mahlum • Back On My Feet • coffee • Homeless • Philly • Zocalo